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PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP
LAUNCH OF EMPLOYMENT SERVICES REGULATORY AUTHORITY,
WILLIAM ANGLISS COLLEGE, MELBOURNE, 4 MAY 1995
E& OE PROOF COPY
I'm very pleased to be here and I thank the William Angliss College for being
our very kind hosts on this morning to launch the Employment Services
Regulatory Authority. It is, I think, another one of those milestones in the
history of our country, of our society, and I made the point, I think, back in the
election in 1993, that the election was very much an ideological contest
between those that had one view of Australia and those with another. And
the view that we on this side of politics and society had was that Australia
was strong enough and rich enough, and we hoped wise enough, to accept
the notion of inclusion and to say that we move ahead as a society together,
that we should never, ever accept the fact that some people are allowed to
miss right out and fall off the back of the system, become an underclass and
try and meet their way, or battle along, basically in some sort of a rut of
assistance, or community assistance, or welfare, for the rest of their days.
Now, it turned out that that message was pretty well understood and received
in the last election and it is true as Joan Kirner said, that on election night I
said we wouldn't leave the unemployed behind, that the election was very
much about activity and employment, about the whole notion that the way to
fairness and equity in this country is through the right to a job and one's
capacity to share in the national bounty and have a piece of the cake which
comes generally through employment in this country.
So, we had a number of objectives: one to restart the economy and get it
cracking, to get employment going strongly, and at the same time to look after
those who have been particularly disadvantaged in the labour market the
long term unemployed. And we can say now, a couple of years down the
track, we are well along the way of meeting some of those objectives. We've
had 4.2 per cent employment growth over the last year, which in OECD terms
is spectacular. We have had the biggest fall in unemployment in the last
year, or year and a half, that we've had since we've be-en kieping the records
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and we're now starting to see substantial inroads to the category of long term
unemployment, That is, those who are long term unemployed are getting a
bigger share of the employment action in this cycle than they did in any other.
That's because, I think, that we've had a lot of aggregate employment
because you can have Working Nation, but Working-Nakion without growth
and employment one feeds off the other, the fI~ xiThas got to come from the
employment. But not only have we had the raw employment, we've had, I
think, the success of the labour market programs and actually trying to bring
people who are long term unemployed back into the mainstream of the labour
market. Now, this is a matter of great pleasure to me, and to Simon Cxean who
manages these programs under his portfolio and also to the social security
system with our colleague Peter Baldwin it's a matter of great pleasure to
the Government as a whole tii-tNwe'v-e been able to see this transformation.
But the good thing is I think we're getting acceptance for the notion of the
equity of it all. Now, I mean, the thing about our Tory friends is when you say
equity it's like holding up the wooden stake to Dracula they're always
moving away from the word equity. But when we talked about Working
Nation, talking about equity and efficiency, well, the efficiency word, well, they
couldn't, you know, ideology meant they couldn't really leave that one behind
and we said, well, where are we going to get the skills complementation in
this recovery? I mean, as the recovery continues and we start seeing real
strength in employment and potential bottlenecks in the labour market, where
are going to get the skills formation from? And we are essentially going to
get them from the long term unemployed, you know, then a group of 350-
400,000 people. So we are saying not only is it an inequitable thing to do to
leave them behind, it's an inefficient thing to do. That is, that the labour
market will be stronger and better and that the point that Sue and others have
made this morning, people have skills. The fact that they have struck a poor
patch in the labour market, or they haven't been there at the right moment, or
they haven't been managed properly, or they have not been understood
doesn't mean that they can't be particularly useful back in the labour market
doing the things that they have done in the past or are able to do in the
future, or if they are trained to do in the future. And so as a consequence,
we've seen now an acceptance of, I think, the concept behind Working
Nation, which is a very revolutionary change because the whole concept of
cp e ranrigement and the Job Compact, that is, when someone is long term
unemployed, unemployed over twelve months or more, they have this right to
be case managed for an individual to get to know them, to understand their
aptitudes, their educational standards, their employment history, their
personality, and try and match them and help them, and at the same time,
then after eighteen months, qualify for the Compact where the nation makes a
commitment to give them a labour market place, a subsidised place in the
labour market, for a period of time provided they take it.
This is, I think, quite a revolutionary change and it did come from, as Joan
said, the Green Paper consultations and the White Paper, and were able to
put it into place. Now I notice today, you know-, we have people still
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cavilling about. I notice, Vince Fitzgerald today talking about savings in
The Australian saying, '~ Well, you know, the Government should have
basically used the Working Nation money last year and put it off the Budget
deficit" you know, it's a view, but it's a pretty dull view, it's a pretty dumb
view. And you say, why? I mean, here we are, we're about to bring down a
Budget which is going to address the major problem the country faces in
the medium term and that is the sav ins icnbajance and the current
account deficit. That's what the Budget is going to be aimed squar'ly-at.
It's principal task is not demand management, so why did we, last year,
have to forget Working Nation and simply put the proceeds off the Budget
deficit? And there's only one reason ideology. Ideology, that is, out of
sight, out of mind. You know, the hard-hearted view, the rest of us can
move on into higher incomes and better standards of living and bad luck,
the sort of buffer at the end of the station, the cushion, the shock-absorber,
is that 300,000 or so people can be the long term unemployed and who
cares about them because politically they don't matter. I mean, that's the
view. You know, it's a view those of us who appreciate the sort of country
Australia is and has become should fight, that we should resist, that we
don't want the Newt Gingrich view of the world here and we are not going
to cop it being sort of basically parroted by people like John Howard, you
know, running around parroting little right-wing ideologies dfedupo
that they are more palatable. But basically down to the same thing, that is,
Mr Downer as Leader of the Opposition, said Working Nation was an
extravagance, they would hack into all the labour market programs upon
which it sits and basically say that it's dispensable. Well, we don't think it is
and I don't think the employers think it is because I think they see the clear
value of it. But more than that, it does make us a better, stronger society to
have these values. I mean, politics and national life is about values, it's not
just about the Budget balance, it's not just about the tax system, it's about
values. And you've got to make a determined effort when you've got
we've now international ised this country, you've got international price
earnings ratios being attached to our stocks, you've had, you know, great
increments in wealth. I mean, twelve years ago, when I first became
Treasurer, the all ordinaries index, I think from memory, was 451 that's
over 2,000 today. That's over a four-fold increase in real wealth for the
people holding stocks in this country, and you will see that. The
international isation of the place means that there is going to be more
wealth here, and its distribution will often be uneven. That's not to say that
we should comply in any induced unevenness. Rather, we should resist it
and try and bring up the people at the bottom of the queue. And whether
they come up via Working Nation or the transfer system, or support for low
income families, or the singular commitment to employment, I mean,
whatever it is of those we choose or choose together, these are all things
that a good society does in the name of equity, decency and justice. And
that's where Working Nation came from it came from those concepts.
But, like a lot of things the Government has done, we are now seeking to
sort of push the boundaries out further and what we are seeing here today
is really a quite revolutionary change to the way the labour market works
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and you've already seen, you know, the Job Compact come into place, the
Youth Training Initiatives are up and running, the Nation-alTraining Wage
has been implemented, the Australian Student Traineeship Foundation,
NETTFORCE, and now we are looking at the launch of the Employment
Services Regulatory Authority, with its contracted Case Management
launch. And here, we are seeing another important innovation in the way
the Australian rabour market works, because we are now seeking with the
basis of case management that close in, personalised attention and care
which we are able to give people. We are able, in that context, to start to
say " well, maybe we ought to be giving people a choice about who
manages them", and try and encourage some competition into the system
that manages them, so that there isn't just one monolith servicing them,
though the monolith that has done its very best under strained conditions
that's the CES but to open it out. Essentially, ESRA was an idea that
Simon ( Crean) and I dreamed up, and it came from the Austel model in
telecommunications. And that is, that we had Austel running a market
between Optus, Telecom and the resellers of telecommunications services.
And so what we sought to do with Austel was to create a private market,
but with the market tipped in favour of the duopolists in this country which
was Optus and the resellers, away from the former monopolists, Telecom.
In the same way, the same concept is here with ESRA that is, we will have
a body sitting over this labour market seeking to create a proper market in
training management, in case management and opportunity, and in the
labour market, and the delivery of labour market programs in such a way
that we will not simply see some monolith, and at the same time, involving
private sector companies. And we heard Sue's contribution earlier from
Drake amongst others that will be here, like, of course, the Brotherhood of
St Laurence and similar bodies we will see them proliferate right across
the country, and we will see these skills come up. We will see the skills
base of case managers come up, we will be able then to see people
moving between organisations, and we will develop truly an industry in
this particular field. Another good thing about it is that there is one good
thing about the Tories -they can always rip away at a labour market
program, but it is very hard to start tearing away at these things, once they
start being built up. One of the things you have always got to do when you
think about social reform in Australia is to make it Tory-proof you have
always got to Tory-proof them. It's not just do them, but you have got to
hermetically seal them so they can't get their nasty little right-wing
fingernails under them and tear them away. And this is another thing that I
think matters in this that is, that we can actually not simply develop it, but
we can, in the doing of it, get a lot of acceptance for it.
I think one of the things that Simon ( Crean) and I would like to see happen
here is that as we see this system continuing to sophisticate itself that
the case managers themselves can start to create their own labour market
programs. And that we might be able to relate to organisations and case
managers in a way where we fund those, built in a way which is wholly
different to the way we do it today. And that is one of the things that one
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would hope to see come a much more flexible, efficient and effective
labour market program. Now, I was delighted when Joan told me that we
hava nlready got 271 private bvie accredited I think contracted is
probably the right term private and community organisations. Two
hundred and seventy one, who between them will help 100,000 job
seekers. A significant number of these accredited contracted case
managers specialise in services to clients with particular needs such as
youth, people with disabilities, mature-aged unemployed people, Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people, people of non-English speaking
backgrounds, and ex-offenders etc. And I think that we are talking now
already about 600 outlets around the country. So, already we are starting
to see the thing blossom and as you know, the fact that Joan is also on
NETTFORCE means we can make that linkage to the companies and to the
industrial sectors. Because I think one of the great possibilities in case
management in Australia is that we actually get sectors like the metals
industry and the metal industry employers with the metal industry unions
talking about taking up case management themselves, so that when some
firm in that industry requires somebody, there is a much easier matching
process, and that there is, if you like, people tending to gravitate towards it
for jobs in that particular industry. We start to get some segmentation in
the industry. I think the notion is of a training company, and I think we are
seeing this in a sort of NETTFORCE concept arising there. So, I think that
is going to be an important change too, So, the whole case management
notion providing private sector as well as government involvement needs
to be applauded and further promoted.
Can I just say a few words here about the CES much maligned, but it has
done a terrific job over the years, under difficult circumstances, often with a
system a weight of unemployment which it was never really designed to
manage. But, at the same time, managed it well, and now referring people
to private case managers. It's a cultural change there, and I know that we
in the Government are very proud of the changes which have been taking
place in the CES in its capacities, and let me just take this opportunity to
record our appreciation of that organisation.
I would like to also take the chance while I am here of just complimenting
Simon on the job he has done with Working Nation it has been a mighty
job a mighty job. It is really the hard tack of public policy itfs one thing
announcing it, designing it and announcing it and getting it out, it's another
thing making it work. Putting all the bits together, seeing that they fit
logically, trying to get their efficiencies up, get them moving together it's a
tremendous task, and I have got many reasons to feel proud of this
Cabinet, and proud of the Government, but none more so than Working
Nation, and the job that Simon has been able to do with all of you who are
involved with these programs. I mean, it's a great tribute to the sort of
system of government and the society we have that we can take something
like this on, and get it up quickly and get it running effectively you can just
imagine the sort of debate you would have in the United States with a
program like this, well, you wouldn't have a program like this in the United
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States, or in other parts of the world. And I do hope that what we have
done here in Working Nation is going to be a bit of a trail-blazer in the
OECD countries as something better in terms of how the long-term
unemployed can be brought into the labour market, and to have their share
of the nations bounty, their share of the opportunities, their share of the joy,
their share of the happiness, because they are entitled to it as much as any
of the rest of us are.
So, could I perhaps conclude by thanking Joan sincerely for taking the
job. She is a believer in community organisations you have got to say
that for her. And this is right up her alley, this one, because this is
community action at work in the very best sense of that phrase. That is,
going out there, and getting these linkages to community organisations in
the welfare sector, and other community and private organisations, and
getting that mix I think Joan's experience in government, and her own
experience in community activity, almost uniquely places her with ESRA to
see it really come good. And so I thank her most sincerely for that. I would
like to finalise by expressing my appreciation to everybody who has
enthusiastically taken Working Nation up who have seen it as an
opportunity, who have been of good spirit and good heart, and who have
got in to see what they can do, and many of those organisations are
represented here today, and many people who have done that are here
today they are too numerous to thank, but I sincerely thank you all,
because Governments can do some things, but without you, they don't
happen. Particularly in this area, and I think the fact that you have
embraced these programs holds out such great promise to people who are
disadvantaged and unemployed people we have heard from a couple of
them today, and you can just see this whole question about one's place in
society, one's esteem for oneself, how important it is to advance to a job.
and to make one's way in life. That can only come when one loses that
esteem through being rejected by society or seemingly by being
unemployed for a long period of time, or unemployed at all, indeed, and
then to be supported I think these are things which mean that people can
rise and their esteem can rise, and their whole sense of themselves can
change and they can soon become much more effective take a much
more effective place in our country and our society. The main thing is, with
all these things, as I said earlier good societies can do more than one
thing at a time, and good governments can do more than one thing at a
time we can attend to the Budget deficit, and the Current Account Deficit,
while at the same time we look after the unemployed. And not only is it
something we can do, it is something we should do. And we should
always reject the doom-sayers who, in the end, have basically a caraway
seed for a heart there is a very small thing ticking in the chest, which,
really, is all about being essentially when you get down to it all, when
you rub all the phrasing and all the polish of it, it's just a bit of meanspiritedness.
We are all, I hope, much bigger than that. Thank you indeed.
ends.